Vancouver
police believe goods worth $250,000 were stolen for sale at illegal 'apartment
store' Police recovered around $250,000 in suspected stolen property
last week inside a Vancouver apartment that was operating as an “underground
retail sales centre." Officers went to an east Vancouver apartment building on
Dec. 7, acting on a tip from the anti-fencing unit that stolen property was
being sold there. Police said Wednesday the apartment was stocked with thousands
of items of suspected stolen merchandise, organized into different sections as
one would find at a legitimate retail store. There were racks of men’s and
women’s clothes, expensive, name-brand winter coats, designer jeans, and
high-end wallets, purses and sunglasses. A second room was dedicated to
children’s clothing. The apartment even included a changing room for customers
to try on articles of clothing. The illegal store, probably advertised by word
of mouth and online, was doing brisk business. Police observed dozens of
customers an hour passing through the property to shop, said patrol officer
Const. Brian Hobbs, who was at scene. Officers also saw people coming to the
apartment to drop off bags of suspected stolen merchandise to sell. more
organized kind of shoplifting seems to be especially prevalent the Vancouver
area, O’Keefe said — and it’s on the rise. "Organized crime for the purpose of
resale, I would say, is higher ...in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland,” O’Keefe
said. “Right now, it’s a little bit of a hotbed. It seems like it’s on the rise
this year. There’s been a lot more activity that police have identified, that
retailers have complained about in terms of some of the organized gangs out
there." (Source
theprovince.com)

5
adults, 2 teens - ORC ring arrested for stealing thousands from Gallatin, Tenn.,
Walmart Investigators say 37-year-old Jenny Andrews and her
31-year-old husband Christopher Andrews is the mastermind behind the shoplifting
ring. According to police, the Andrews dropped off the younger members of the
group, which included their 20-year-old daughter, two of her friends and two
minors, at the store and waited for them to return with cart loads of stolen
merchandise. Police said the group of shoplifters was ultimately identified by
surveillance video. Gallatin police are working to determine if the group is
suspects in other similar crimes. (Source
wkrn.com)

Two California male suspects hit Washington Square Mall in Portland, Ore., with
fake credit cards - may be connected to same west coast gang Two men
have been arrested for using counterfeit credit cards at Washington Square, the
third set of similar arrests in the past three months. Two suspects were
arrested on Wednesday, Dec. 4, after going on a shopping spree at Washington
Square mall and in Portland using fraudulent credit cards. Each case has
involved California residents in their 20s and 30s allegedly making thousands of
dollars worth of purchases at Washington Square mall using fake credit cards.
“The general public is not aware of how prevalent this is right now,” Wolf said.
“The use of counterfeit credit cards is plaguing the retail industry. But we
have been fortunate — with information sharing among law enforcement and
retailers. This is a great example of how those corroborations can work.” Wolf
said it’s unclear what has brought the increase in cases to Tigard. “That is a
question that law enforcement is unable to answer,” Wolf said. “We are not sure
why, all of a sudden, people are coming up from California on these shopping
sprees in the Northwest." (Source
portlandtribune.com)